Given that the Jakarta Post doesn't keep their news items online for long because it recycles its URLs, I've taken the liberty of slightly editing the following article whilst posing one question.

Why does it take a Buddhist organization from Taiwan to demonstrate to the Jakarta administration how the city's waste can, and should, be dealt with?

'Trash donors' sought for charity

"Killing two birds with one stone" is not an empty proverb for low-cost apartment residents built by Taiwan-based Buddha Tzu Chi Foundation in Cengkareng Timur, West Jakarta.

They not only help clean up some parts of the city by collecting non-organic waste from nearby areas but also sort it into three categories of paper, plastic and aluminum cans before selling it. So far, the residents have collected waste from houses, shops, restaurants and other small firms that have agreed to "donate" their garbage to the foundation.

The money derived from the non-organic waste is to finance the foundation's charities, which have been ongoing for seven months.

Abdul Muis, property management division head of PT Graha Bina Mandiri, the company that manages the low-cost apartments, said around 750 residents in three luxury housing complexes in Ancol Timur, Ancol Barat and Muara Karang and 50 firms and individuals in other parts of Greater Jakarta have agreed to donate their non-organic waste.

The agreement allows apartment residents to collect the garbage from house owners and the firms every two weeks. Green bags are provided for plastic waste and yellow ones for cans or aluminum waste. For cardboard and paper, house owners and the firms just tie it up and put it outside their premises.

To pick up the waste, the foundation uses a garbage truck and will rent another one if necessary. "When picking up the waste, the truck crew usually put on music that will signal house owners and company staff to come out of their premises and hand over their waste to us," Abdul said.

The foundation can collect up to seven tons of waste in a month and in the long run aims to produce recycled items from the non-organic waste.

"The objective is to change garbage into gold and the gold will become love among human beings. We hope we can help materialize the dream of the poor to have a decent life through charity," said Sugianto Kusuma, the foundation deputy chairman, adding that the activity was inspired by a similar project in Taiwan.

Meanwhile, back in the realm of we-know-best (because we're the city government), it seems that the recent controversy over the shooting of protestors against a city dump may have been misplaced. According to Nabiel Makarim, the former state minister for the environment, the Bojong waste disposal plant in Bogor regency should have been located in Nambo village.

It doesn't matter too much anyway, as due to the ongoing protests, "If we can't go ahead with our plan to use Bojong, we have no other choice but to use Bantar Gebang. We will use Bantar Gebang for the next five years, as stipulated in our contract with the Bekasi administration," City Sanitation Agency head Selamat Limbong said yesterday during a hearing with City Council Commission D for development affairs.